Arenas hosting sporting events such as basketball and volleyball have an ongoing need to mop up sweat and spilled liquids from their court floors. The sweat drips from the players and is deposited in large areas when a player falls on the court floor. Drinks from water bottles on the edge of the court floor often leak onto the floor and occasionally fans throw a cup or bottle onto the court. Certain areas such as under the basketball hoop, along the volleyball net and around the free throw line, tend to accumulate more liquids than others.
Generally, sports arena court floors are constructed of plank hardwood that has been finished to a mirror like gloss. Fluids on the court make a slipping hazard for the athletes. Since many of the athletes playing in these arenas are under multi-million dollar contracts, all efforts must be made to ensure their safety. Thus an ongoing, vigilant watch for fluids on the court floor is conducted during high-level amateur and professional sporting events.
When sighted, the fluid must be quickly mopped up during referee calls and other momentary breaks in the sports action. This mopping takes place during the event on breaks between the action. Since it is done in front of thousands of local spectators and potentially millions of media viewing people, the mop has the potential for high visibility.
Henceforth, a manual court floor mop that would draw attention to itself for short periods of time and capitalize on its large, briefly captive audience, would create a new niche need in the advertising industry. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to accomplish this.